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Even though Stephen Raskin has owned Buchanan and Associates Inc. since 2000, he realized his company’s screen enclosures needed to undergo some engineering upgrades to withstand Florida’s hurricane season. “We discovered, generally speaking, the engineering being done by everyone was somewhat erratic,” Raskin says. “In 2004, we obtained a patent on our Rhino Beam System which was stronger than the conventional systems used by others. However, we knew there was need for further improvement. In late 2006, we hired a consulting engineering firm to take a worst-case model of a mansard screen enclosure designed by a group of engineers who were working in the industry, run it through computerized analysis, and determine what was acceptable and what was not acceptable to meet code requirements.”

The engineering firm determined the connections, which were supposed to keep the enclosure from failing during a hurricane, were the major source of the problem, so Buchanan and Associates developed the Rhino Connection System, patent pending, which provides the strength to the screen enclosures in order to compliant and withstand Florida’s hurricanes.

Raskin says the Rhino Beam and Connection System was developed based on the recommendations  that appeared in the study done for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation by an engineering firm in Raleigh, N.C., which called for more rigid connections.

“We’ve been using the connections the last three months, and it is completely different and significantly stronger than what is being done by everyone else,” Raskin adds. “We have a published patent on the Rhino Beam and a patent pending on the Rhino Connection System, and we intend to make it available to the industry. I’m hoping for a significant increase in orders for screen enclosures. We didn’t pick the timing, but there is a little more interest now because the hurricane season is over.”

Formed in 1977, Buchanan and Associates was a $2 million company when Raskin took over. The company grew to $14 million in 2006. It markets primarily to new homebuilders on the east and west coast of Florida, and Buchanan and Associates is now moving south into Miami-Dade County, Fla., as well as north to Vero Beach and Palm Bay.

Raskin took time to speak with Construction Today about its relationships with developers throughout Florida, the changing market and approaching the sensitive topic of downsizing.

Construction Today: What distinguishes your company’s work from competitors’?
Stephen Raskin: We’ve always been innovative, almost from the beginning. We went outside the box, came up with new extrusions and new methodology and found out and implemented what needed to be done to meet code changes.

CT: How would you describe the relationships you have with developers?
SR: We’ve had excellent relationships with developers we’ve worked with. We’re their primary company for aluminum railing and screen enclosures, and we have long-term relationships with many of them.

Four years ago we started an in-house welding operation, and last year it grew to almost half of our business. We are contemplating manufacturing decorative aluminum railing and shipping it to contractors outside of our current geographic territory.

CT: How is the market changing?
SR: The economic change all over the country is affecting new housing, and as a result has affected contractors like myself. They are all laying off people because the buyers are not there because of inflated property values and the corresponding increase in property taxes. Property taxes have to come down in order for the market to improve. Consumers are generally being more careful and making sure they are dealing with reputable licensed contractors who deliver what they say they are going to deliver. We were hurt financially by having contractors come into our state after the hurricanes and not deliver what they said they would deliver, and in some instances not delivering at all.

CT: How have you adapted to this?
SR: We had to downsize this year, so about 50 percent of our people were temporarily laid off. The longest-tenured and most-experienced were not, so the people who were in this company for many years, some as long as 30 years, are still with us.

There was not enough business to keep everyone working. It’s difficult. When you sit in this chair, sometimes you have to make really tough decisions. No matter how difficult they may be, you must survive so you will be there when the market gets better. Each time we had to do a layoff, the management team talked about each individual and how much time, notice, severance to give.

We made joint-consensus decisions, but not without emotion. We did what was necessary, both for those staying and for the company to remain a prominent force in the industry.

CT: What is your vision of the future?
SR: I believe it will be about a year or a year-and-a-half before we see the construction industry dramatically improve. In the early stages of 2008, we will introduce a niche market product to hopefully allow us be a little bit ahead of the curve, but you never know.